It appeared word had reached Cercie regarding the incarceration of Jaime's lawful wife regardless of the thousands of miles between them… and the likelihood of Brienne's execution hadn't escaped his sweet, caring sister.
Ride south, the Queen Mother implored, ride south once the sentence was carried out and be with her once more. Like they had once been. Like they should be.
Jaime snorted.
There were some things better left in the past.
Still… he worried for her.
It would seem his sister was, once again, betrothed and set to marry… this being her third engagement since becoming the widow of Robert.
Her first, Loras Tyrel, met his end on Tarth; Jaime bubbled with anger as he recalled his sister and father attempting to place the blame for Loras' death on Brienne. Jaime had been forced to invent a sordid tale to save his lover from the sword, there-and-then at the foot of a blood thirsty audience.
Cercies second victim had been named from one of the Dornish houses, of which Jaime was unfamiliar. This unblessed union had seen the hapless hopeful disembark Dorn in a flagship, only to be set upon by, a yet unknown, renegade ship and unceremoniously dashed across the shore, alight with no survivors.
The common thought was pirate attack, but Jaime frowned, in his opinion only Greyjoy ship could be so ruthless.
A deep, unsettling, hatred rose up in Jaime… he still recalled the brutal, reaving ways of the Iron-born… seeing how they treated those they defeated… cutting into them for what they needed to sate any number of desires… removing teeth for gold… fingers for rings… and other parts…
This could have been a coincidence…
Had the ship arrived in Kings Landing, Cercie would have, doubtless, found some other demise for her fiance. This pirating vessel seems to have saved her the trouble.
Jaime thought on it a moment.
Would his sister, honestly, form an alliance with the children of the Drowned God to avoid an unwanted marriage?
No. No, where Cersie was concerned Jaimie knew there was no such things as coincidences.
Current events had soured him but he still found it difficult to believe his sister would stoop so low.
The current unintended was the son of Randal Tarly… bannerman to House Tyrell.
The political manoeuvring was clear; to appease the Tyrells and keep the current alliance, which bolstered the waning Lannister provisions of food, armies and gold.
Dickon, Jaime sniggered to himself, was a young and able warrior who was more brawn than brain. He recalled Samwell mentioning his brother kindly during their voyage to Winterfell, despite the manner in which the younger sibling had been elevated over him.
Certainly, the favoured son was a special offering… ripe to produce many strong offspring and stupid enough to think Cercie would allow it.
Surely their father would tire of this game; Jaime was surprised Tywin had allowed it to go this far but the older Lannister had cast a purposeful blind-eye across the goings-on of his children for many years… he was, more likely, aware of Cercie's little homicidal tendency without wanting to admit it (least of all to himself).
He supposed he had pondered on his sister's affairs too long.
Jaimie stood and crossed the room, giving the seal of the Queen Mother one last look before casting it into the fire.
Life took so many twists and turns…
A clatter of fists pummelled his door as a breathless cry beseeched, "Jaimie… M'Lord Jaimie."
Jaimie was across the room in a moment, wrenching the door open to a near-panicked Samwell Tarly… his heart leapt into his throat… "Brienne?" He asked, nauseous and fearful.
The Nights Watchman nodded emphatically, blinking sweat through long eyelashes and blubbering, "Yes… yes… it's started…"
Shit!
Leaping over the crumpled man in his doorway, Jaimie bolted for the stair, barely hearing the cry of, "No! The east-wing!"
Turning on his heel, he shot a sharp, "Thank you," Sam's way before heading down the corridor and down the stairs at break-neck speed.
By the time he had reached the treatment rooms, once Maester Luwin's clinic for the sick, Jaimie was almost breathless himself, a million-and-one things flying through his thoughts and fear gushing through his veins.
The unmistakable roar of his wife spurred him into action once more; bursting through the door, splintering the wood as he went and breaking into the shocking scene of his wife, braced upon her knees with the two Wildling girls damping her forehead and rubbing her back…
"Jaimie!" Brienne screamed.
He scattered to the floor to take her hand and ask, "How long?"
"Long enough!" Brienne replied, pink and sweating…
"Not long now…" Gilly replied, bringing another cool, wet towel to damp his wife's forehead.
Jaimie was glad; he would never have forgiven himself for missing the birth of their child.
"Where have you been?" Brienne demanded.
"I wasn't permitted to visit you," Jaimie explained, taking in her current condition and reaching for the dampened towels Ygritte had brought to help ease the coming moments.
"And that stopped you?" She asked in a high voice.
Jaimie rolled his eyes, "Let's see… a one-armed man against the guards of the Golden Company of Esos…"
"When have you ever been so level-headed?" Brienne asked.
"One of us had to be!" He exclaimed. "And seeing as you refuse the task… I guess that leaves me."
"Is there something you want to say to me?" She asked, taking a sharp breath in as another wave of contractions threatened.
"Now isn't the time," he admitted, moving his hand beneath hers to offer stronger support, his golden hand resting on the small of her back as her body bucked.
"Can you think of a better time?" Brienne asked unsteadily…
"Fine," he conceded, bending to meet her eye, "What possessed you to challenge Stannis Baratheon?"
"You're bringing this up now?!" Brienne cried, bracing herself…
"You told me to!"
And she cried out… Ygritte and Gilli urging her to push and that they could see the child and it was almost with them.
"Stannis!" Jaimie continued, despite the moment, "The Bloody self-professed King… leader of a band of cut-throats and allied to the Dawnish Prince."
Brienne gripped his hand…
"And right after the battle for the North had concluded, no less!" Jaimie almost laughed at the insanity, "Could you have chosen a place a little less surrounded by our enemies?" He asked his pregnant wife, "I mean, you don't see me… charging dragons!"
"Oh! Don't be ridiculous…" Brienne ground out from gritted teeth as her eyes squeezed closed.
Jaime felt her grip on his hand tighten as her body curled in against the pressure of her contractions… she had been at the battle, despite being months into her first pregnancy and then killed the self-professed King of Westeros…
"I made an oath!" She managed to say through her gritted teeth.
"Your priorities have changed since then!"
"They have not."
"They will in a minute," Jamie commented in a low whisper.
And with one last, long scream, Jaime became hazily fixed in the moment… there was no clear pattern or recollection of movement or time until the final push where the child was free and Brienne slumped onto the ground…
Jaimie fell with her, stroking her face and soothing her with the dim acknowledgement of a small cry from behind them.
The cry was the clearest sound in the world… it sliced through the foggy perception preceding it and grounded Jaimie enough to turn his head…
Gilly and Ygritte moved to wrap the tiny figure into swaddling as Jaime helped Brienne drag herself to the low tough of a bed provided… as he gasped and reassured, "You did it… Brienne, you did it! You did so well…"
And once his wife was settled, she was asking, "Where is it, Jaimie? Where's our baby?"
"She's here," Ygritte offered, Gilli 'shhshh-ing' her before she said, "What? She's good and strong and…"
"A girl?" Jaimie exclaimed.
Brienne was already reaching for the child, gathering her tiny frame in her arms to look over her frantically before sapphire met topaz and their eyes locked…
There was nothing else in the world… only Jaimie and his two girls.
And they were perfect.
He found his arms around them, looking down at their child as the little one opened its eyes and blinked against the candle-light…
Brienne gasped, "We did it, Jaimie."
"You did it," he confirmed, giving her a squeeze to show the pride and love he felt brimming over. "You were brilliant," he kissed her wet forehead and looked back at the child now widening her eyes and taking in the look of her parents both staring down at her. "Hello, my little one," he said, the words feeling wonderful… the acknowledgement of his baby with the woman he loved… he had always missed this feeling.
He hardly noticed the two Wildlings moving about them, tidying the space, until they moved forward and gently reminded Brienne that they needed to tend to her.
"Of course," Brienne reluctantly agreed, turning to her husband and reaching the baby up for him to fold her in his arms… "Go with Daddy for a while…"
At first, Jaimie was startled but took the child who moaned a little at the movement but settled warmly in the crook of his golden arm. Jaimie was guided to the fire at the far end as a curtain was drawn. He sat, staring at his daughter…
And how wonderful that sounded...
His daughter.
Tears blurred his eyes.
Nothing was more perfect in the world.
()()()()()()()()
Jon and Sansa had visited the clinic for some reason or other and come to pass their wishes to Jaimie and Brienne on the birth of their daughter, whose name was still not yet chosen.
As all visitors to new mothers do, they suggested names… Catlyn, Lyana, Lysa…
The new parents politely declined.
They had been granted 24 hours before further ruling on Brienne's actions would be announced. Jon had said he would speak to how bravely Brienne had fought to retake Winterfell and rescue Sansa, who herself agreed to speak for Brienne.
And when the hour came, Brienne, Jaimie and their child were ordered to welcome the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms and heir to Stannis.
Queen Shireen Baratheon of Storm's End entered the small room. The young girl had transformed over the past weeks, from a timid foal, mild and gentle… to a sterner leader, carrying herself with the pride of any Stag.
She had retrieved her fathers armour, reforging the metal to create her own… redesigning the sigil to remove the flames from the hart and restore the image of the Stag, rampant, bearing the crown of the land about its throat.
Amongst her first actions was the choice to reinstate Jon Snow as the Lord of Winterfell and legitimise his birth rite by naming him Stark.
Jon Stark and his Wildling wife were wed at the weir wood tree and she began to study as a healer. Along with Gilly.
Jon Stark pledged to rule the North with his sister, Sansa… who had been recovered from the Boltons along with Theon Greyjoy, whose sister had come to reunite with him.
This was all very sweet… but it would all be for naught should they fail in their war against the Boltons, whose Lord… a greasy little git named Ramsey… had fled back to the Dreadfort.
Many of the Queens advisors had said they should follow them back and root them out… and perhaps they were right.
Shireen had spent many hours in the library of Castle Black and, more recently, Winterfell… she listened to the Knights Watchmen and Tyrion tell of the threat that came with Winter.
A Queen tempered with the wisdom of the ages… perhaps there was hope after all?
She now stood at the foot of Brienne's bed, days after the birth of their child, flanked by a number of advisors, some familiar to Jaimie and others as yet unknown.
He instantly recognised Selyse Barathion, shuffling in an oversized mourning dress and furs of raven black, a thin veil hiding nothing of the contempt she felt as she looked upon Brienne.
Jaimie also knew the Onion Knight, Davos Seaworth, noting how the mans small eyes darted about the room and persons in it but always returned to the little Queen he appeared to adore.
The battle commander who took station outside the medical room, however, he did not recognise… Jaimie could see his armour and rank of Captain of the Golden Company but knew nothing of the man.
"Your Grace," Brienne dipped her head, cradling their baby.
"You should be on your knees," the Queen Mother observed, the guardsman twitching at the door at the sound of her voice.
Jaimie felt his hand on the nearest vase… he supposed he was aiming to hurl it as he launched into a fight, if needs-be…
But Shireen calmed the moment with a gesture and smiled, "There is no need for the moment."
Selyse scowled at her daughter but said nothing.
The Onion Knight smiled.
"Your baby is beautiful," Shireen cooed, leaning up a little to see the little one…
Brienne beamed and tipped her hold up so the sleeping child was better seen by the little Queen.
Shireen rushed forward a moment and grinned at the child, "Do you have a name for her?"
"Not yet," Jaimie said in a low voice, "We're still deciding."
"Your Highness," the Queen Mother hissed.
Jaimie decided right there and then that he hated the woman… "Your Highness."
But Shireen was giggling as the baby had reached for her finger and enveloped it in a tiny grip, "Oh! She has very blue eyes… just like you," Her little grin lit the room…
There was no malice. There was no evil in this girl. And Jaimie began to hope in earnest…
"What about Melony?" She asked.
"Melony?" Brienne asked, seeming to really consider the name.
"A warriors name," Jaimie added his approval…
"A little warrior…" Brienne smiled.
And the moment cut…
"We aren't here for this," Selyse said, impatiently. "Your father…"
"My father," Shireen countered, a sharp edge to her tone, "believed a great many things," Shireen agreed, "I loved him but I do not share all of his views or his beliefs."
That much was true. One of the Queens first acts was to banish the witch, Melisandre, to the outcry of some of her father's followers and the relief of many others.
Melisandre had said it was a mistake and swore to return to Winterfell to attend the one true King, where the Lord of Light wanted her to be.
The child-Queen had smiled sweetly and reminded her that, should she return to Westeros, she would be meeting her God a lot sooner than she may anticipate. Shireen then made an obscure reference to Melisandes necklace that caused the witch to pause… bow and take her leave.
It was the last she was seen in the North.
"But I know he believed in honour and in valour…" Shireen continued, "traits this lady has displayed in abundance. I know my father would have agreed that she should act on her oath and that he held no ill will for the completion of a promise made in good faith.
My father's only downfall was a belief in an otherworldly influence that would guide his sword… in many ways… it was the Red Woman that killed my father… long ago."
Jaime remained silent but secretly in awe… this child with a wealth of wisdom and yet no hint of malice for her treatment down the years. He was glad for such a level assessment of Brienne's actions.
Shireen giggled at the baby, "But what shall we do about you?"
Jaimie felt his breath hitch…